Gujarat is one of India's leading Industrialized states and attracts the most FDI compared to any state in India.

Gujarat wants to go the whole hog with SEZ

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The land factor In Gujarat, over 15 per cent of land is infertile, so land acqui- sition is not a problem. The state has 46 running or approved SEZs – the largest in the country In Bengal, the demand is to fix land ceiling between 400 and 1000 hectares for multi-prod- uct SEZs. The state also wants steps to prevent IT firms from misusing the tax

ONE OF the leading industrialised states in the country, Gujarat, wants the entire state declared as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) so that it can attract more investment, according to a senior state government official.

The official was speaking at a meeting of the standing committee on commerce, looking into the SEZ issue, on Wednesday. The committee, for the first time, invited political parties and organisations, state governments and corporate houses, like the Tata Group, Infosys and Mahindra and Mahindra, for their views on SEZs.

The previous two such meetings saw various ministries and government departments sharing their views. Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi chairs the 40-member committee.

The state of Gujarat took its first major step on the Technology superhighway with a proposed Technology Park in Baroda. Mr. A. M. Naik, Chairman & Managing Director, L&T, performed the ground breaking and foundation stone laying ceremony for this new facility being set up by Larsen & Toubro Limited (L&T).

In his address, Mr. A.M. Naik urged upon the employees to leverage the Technology Park to create value for the country and build one strong economic India.

This new facility, only one of its kind in the whole of Gujarat, will be called ‘L&T Technology Park’. It is to be set up in an area of 112 acres between the Ajwa and Waghodia crossings on Ahmedabad-Mumbai Highway (NH-8). It will entail an investment of Rs.500 crores in infrastructure and building alone from L&T, spread over a period of 5 years. The draft Zonal Plan (General Development Plan for Vadodara) has identified this area as L&T Technology Park.

11 buildings will be constructed in the first phase which will house offices of L&T’s e-Engineering Solutions, EPC Businesses, L&T-Sargent & Lundy, and L&T Chiyoda. Other facilities planned are Project Management Institute, Convention Centre, Employees Hostel, Residential Colony, Food Courts and Entertainment Facilities.

At this set up, L&T is expected to employ around 6000 employees when it is fully functional, mostly engineers, and create, in addition to the above, indirect employment to a large section of local people.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that the massive investment tally in the recent investment summit was a big thumbs up for the state as an ideal investment destination.

"Gujarat has risen as a strategic economic power to India's advantage, with strong fundamentals of international economic benchmarks," Modi said in a news conference here.

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According to him, the 'Vibrant Gujarat' summit has put Gujarat firmly on an exciting high growth orbit that will not only help realise the dream of a Golden Gujarat by 2010 — when Gujarat will turn 50 as a state — but will also stand counted as one among the developed economies of South East Asia.

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He said a total of 363 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) were inked and announcements made indicating investments to the tune of Rs 4,61,835 crore (US $ 100 billion) and prospects for the generation of employment for 1.3 million people. At the IT summit that preceded the investors' summit, MoUs were signed for investment worth US$ 2 billion. In the two previous summits held in 2003 and 2005, a total of 302 MoUs were inked involving an investment of Rs 1,72,000 crore.

One of the leading industrialised states in the country, Gujarat, wants the entire state to be declared as a special economic zone (SEZ) so that it can attract more investment.

This request was put up by a senior Gujarat Government official to the Standing Committee on Commerce looking into the SEZ issue on Wednesday. The committee, for the first time, had invited political parties and organisations, state governments and corporate houses, like the Tata Group, Infosys and Mahindra and Mahindra, to give their views and share their experiences on SEZs.

Tourism in Gujarat is attracting dozens of hoteliers, with more than 30 players signing MoUs with the state government for setting up hotels, resorts and tourism projects. As per government officials, the proposed 32 projects would bring in an investment of Rs 10,635 crore, providing employment to close to 26,370 people. The MoUs were signed at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investor’s Summit held last month in Ahmedabad.

Interestingly, this time it is not only Ahmedabad that has caught the fancy of hoteliers, but also cities like Surat, Morbi and Kutch region. Gujarat Heritage has proposed an investment of Rs 327.50 crore for setting up beach and heritage hotels in Kutch and Morbi. For a five-star hotel, Hotel Crown will invest Rs 325 crore, while Divisions DLF will infuse Rs 250 crore for business hotels at four locations. Royal Manor Hotel plans to expand Taj Umed hotel and set up another five-start hotel in the state. New Jersey-based Apex Hospitality and Mohit Industry propose to invest Rs 100 crore each for five-star hotels in Gujarat, while the latter also has similar plans for Surat. Florida Metal Trading has also entered into a MoU to set up golf hotels and village hotels in Surat at a cost of Rs 355 crore. In addition to this, Bangalore-based Itina Filmcity plans to invest Rs 2,240 crore for setting up a film city, while Pleasure Park will infuse Rs 330 core for an entertainment park in the state.
First private sector textile park to come up near Ahmedabad

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Pradip Overseas Ltd, an exporter of household linen, will establish India's first private sector integrated textile park. The park, to be called `Greenfield Textile Park', will be set up on a 115-hectare plot near Ahmedabad with an investment of Rs1,200 crore over 2008-2012.

The park, when fully operational, will have a capacity to produce five lakh metres of cloth per day and facilities for spinning, weaving, processing, stitching, packaging and dispatching.

Pradip Overseas will finance the project with a debt-equity ratio of 60:40 and proposes to raise 20 percent of the funds through a public issue in 2007. The park is expected to generate employment opportunities for 20,000 people, when fully operational.

In the light of National Maritime Development Programme, Mundra Port & SEZ Ltd (promoted by Adani group) has announced capacity augmentation. The project would cost nearly Rs. 2,000 crore. The port is handling 25 millions tonnes of traffic, and the company's target is to handle traffic of 50 million tonnes in 2010 and 100 million tonnes by 2015.
"The expansion plan includes development of 15 berths which will have draft of 17.5 meters to 18 meters to handle cape size vessels," said an official at Mundra Port & SEZ Ltd. "Gujarat is seeing a lot of investment in the state, and with ultra mega power projects coming up at Mundra we expect enough traffic at our port," he added.
For handling UMPP requirements the company plans two dedicated coal jetties. The total capacity of the two coal jetties would be 1.2 lakh tonnes a day. It is estimated that annual coal requirement for UMPP will be around 20 million tonnes which will be imported through Mundra Port. A preliminary survey on the projects is in progress. Work is likely to start early next year after obtaining necessary clearance.

he rush for new international airports in India continues. After Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra, it is now Gujarat's turn to push for a greenfield international airport on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

The state government wants a state-of-the-art international airport, on the lines of Singapore's Changi airport, in proximity of its commercial capital. And unlike West Bengal, Gujarat has no problems if the airport were to be privately built.

With non-resident Gujaratis settled all around the world, cities like Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, and even Bhuj witness a huge traffic of expatriates who come home every year or two on holidays. Many international airlines have their offices in Ahmedabad and other cities, and there have been calls for a modern international airport for the city.

The state government is now looking at the possibility of a greenfield airport, costing around Rs8,000 crore on 4,000 hectares of land, in Mehmedabad, Dholera, or Sanand, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

The central government had earlier turned down a proposal for an international airport near Ahmedabad, as the site was not found favourable. The Airport Authority of India has proposed a Rs300 crore modernisation of the existing airport in Ahmedabad. But the state government feels there is not much scope for expansion at the present site.

With the federal government having succeeded in getting the privatisation and modernisation of Mumbai and Delhi international airports, there is growing demand for similar projects elsewhere in the country. Both the Tamil Nadu and West Bengal governments are keen that the Chennai and Kolkata airports be modernised.

The Maharashtra government is also pushing for a new greenfield project in Navi Mumbai. Bangalore and Hyderabad are also send this article to a friendgetting new greenfield projects, while Kerala - the state with a large number of international airports - is also expecting a lot of investments in airport infrastructure.

In what would be a first of its initiative in Gujarat, the Bhavnagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) is reviewing a proposal of building a unique ‘Transport Nagar’ on the outskirts of the city.

The corporation is also close to signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a private organisation for providing 30 million litres of water per day (MLD).

Officials from the Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board (GIDB) along with BMC recently made a presentation on the feasibility of the project and have received positive feedback from various private players in the state to collaborate with the government for the same. Land for the project has already been earmarked at a site owned by the Bhavnagar Area Development Authority (BADA).

However, the corporation is looking at three to four other sites on the outskirts of the city. The transport nagar is also being supported by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and other commerce associations in the state. The project is likely to commence after one year.

“Alang is situated around 55 km from Bhavnagar and the continuous vehicular traffic has led us to contemplate the creation of a transport nagar, which will function on a build to operate basis,” said S J Haider, municipal commissioner, BMC.

After the success of the city’s first private-public partnership in 1996 with urban transport, BMC is planning an overhaul of its current fleet of buses.

A new fleet of CNG buses will slowly start replacing the buses running at present in phases starting from the end of this year and will take further two years to be completely implemented.

Also in the pipeline is a gems and jewellery park in the city on 67,000 square mtres of land, which is likely to be commissioned this year and will encourage traditional gems and jewellery traders who had left Bhavnagar for Surat to come back and set shop.

Last year saw a slew of initiatives being undertaken by BMC, which saw the addition of a 15-MLD water treatment park as well as a Lok Darbar for House Tax, which is a single window clearance drive aimed at recovering outstanding house tax and other dues.

The initiative brought in a sum of Rs 8 crore and is prompting the corporation to conduct more of such Lok Darbars in 2007. For better roadways, a ring road on the lines of the Sardar Patel Ring Road in Ahmedabad is also being planned in the coming months.

Centre's not gonna help Modi, espcially since it is Modi who is the CM of Gujarat. but Gujarat already has a lot of muscle that other states don't. HIAL is costing around 2500 crores. for Ahmedabad, since the passenger traffic estimates are much less than those for Hyd, i would say a new airport can be built with about 2000 crores. but Gujarat being Gujarat and if Modi figures he will prove that Gujaratis can build an aiport without centre's support, he'll prolly go for a fantasy airport that the Chinese commies would build for a city like Ahmedabad with about 4000 crores budget. and if this all becomes true, it will be a slap on the face of UPA and Congress and more importantly the Leftists. but it is still quite some time to go before Modi would do something like that.

Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Limited (TCGL), a public sector company of the state government, is finally opening its doors for privatisation of its property spread across the state.

There are 18 hotels and five cafeterias in the state belonging to TCGL under the brand name ‘Toran.’ The process of privatisation is expected to start this week.

According to a highly-placed TCGL official, the government had been busy giving final touches to TCGL’s privatisation plan, which was incurring losses in its hospitality business for more than six years.

The official said that the decision to privatise the corporation property was taken during 2006.

“Ever since the government’s decision was announced, the corporation has been receiving many offers from private players to acquire its properties. These players will soon get a chance to bid officially,” the official added.

The properties of TCGL that will go under the hammer include Toran Resort at Sputter, Hotel Sumeru at Palitana, among others.

I'm aware of the mediocre coverage of Gujarat by the English dailies, but given Gujarat's progress in the last few years it definitely warrants a thread of its own.

There still are many old and new articles out there as well as those contradicting each other. The English media seems to be fairly anti - Modi and though this thread is not meant to be a Modi propaganda machine by any means, one can't help but admire how far Gujarat has travelled over the last few years, owe it to whoever you like.